The F1 world was caught by surprise
last week when the Williams F1 team
announced the near-immediate departure
of Williams Grand Prix Holdings plc
Chairman Adam Parr, who had been
widely thought of as the heir apparent to
team founder Sir Frank Williams.
The press release confirming Parr’s
departure was issued when the bulk of the
circus was 32,000 feet above the earth’s
surface, returning to their far-flung homes
from a dramatic Malaysian Grand Prix
weekend. Little information pertaining to the
cause of Parr’s resignation was offered, and
the rumour mill went spinning.
Given that it was under Parr’s oversight
that the Williams F1 team was able to turn a
terrible 2011 into what looks as though it will
be a successful 2012, his departure was all
the more puzzling.
While it is not GPWEEK’s form to indulge
in rumour-mongering, some of the stories
that did the rounds were incredible – Parr
had left to become a Venezuelan drug lord,
Parr had broken Claire Williams’ heart after
a secret affair and been sent packing by Sir
Frank as a consequence.
But while the full truth of the matter
will only be known by Parr and his former
employers in Grove, enough details have
emerged that F1 insiders have been able to
piece together a credible sequence of events
which has yet to be confirmed by the team.
It is widely believed that Sir Frank and Parr
argued over the role of the Williams team in
the current round of Concorde Agreement
negotiations, and that the two men held
positions that were so incompatible that no
compromise could be reached, leading to
Parr’s high-speed departure.
Sir Frank, it is thought, wanted to accept
the terms offered by Bernie Ecclestone in
the proposed Concorde Agreement, while
Parr thought that by holding out Williams
could get a better deal than the one first
tabled by Bernie.
It has long been in Ecclestone’s interests
to dethrone Parr, who has been a thorn in the
F1 supremo’s side ever since it was made
clear that Sir Frank was grooming him for the
eventual role of team boss.
Parr and Ecclestone are ideologically
opposed when it comes to the future
governance and promotion of Formula One
as both sport and brand, and were Parr
given the opportunity to run the last great
independent F1 team he would have been
able to use the Williams legacy to demand a
greater share of the F1 spoils from FOM.
But by driving a wedge between Sir
Frank and his heir apparent, Ecclestone
has created a space that – with the right
pressure and influence in the right ears, plus
an added sweetener in the terms listed in
the next Concorde – could be filled by a man
(or woman) of his choosing.
DEARLY DE-PARR-TED
New Concorde led to disagreement?
3
GPWEEK.com //
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